


Dreaming In Blue

by Ookamisama



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22990969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ookamisama/pseuds/Ookamisama
Summary: When her life is starting to fall apart around her, Kagome realizes how nice it can be to just stop and take a deep breath ~College AU
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/Kouga
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	1. When It All Falls Down

**Author's Note:**

> So here's the actual reason I created my account. I wanted to write some chapters before starting to upload some of it, but after deleting and rewriting what felt like hundreds of pages of that story over and over again, I was like 'fuck it' - so here's the first fourteen pages or something; and I can already feel myself deleting the next twenty in near future again, so I'm all ears for suggestions and ideas..
> 
> Hope you enjoy it -

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> „Shit, look at me, okay?“, his clawed hands settled on her shoulders for real this time, the right gripping her sweatshirt jacket while the left spread over her bare skin where the cloth had dropped down before. When she didn't lift her head to do as he said, his palms quickly moved towards her neck, thumbs spreading out to the edge of her jaw and tilting her face up until his gaze found hers. „Just look at me and breathe, okay? Breathe with me.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the actual reason I created my account. I wanted to write some chapters before starting to upload some of it, but after deleting and rewriting what felt like hundreds of pages of that story over and over again, I was like 'fuck it' - so here's the first fourteen pages or something; and I can already feel myself deleting the next twenty in near future again, so I'm all ears for suggestions and ideas..
> 
> Hope you enjoy it -

It was full.

Flashing lights danced across the room, casting all the gyrating, sweaty bodies around her in an eerie glow. The thruming of the bass only served to increase the throbbing pain that kept stinging the back of her eyes with each and every full rotation of the disco ball, and at this point, she was absolutely _sure_ her head was splitting in two. And what was it even with that stupidly big crowd? No matter where she stepped, another person just _had_ to be at the exact same spot at the exact same time it seemed. All sorts of fluids and smells were sticking to too warm skin and pressing against her with every move, and it was beginning to feel _unbearable._

It was loud.

Everyone was screaming, drinking, flirting, just all around having the time of their student lives – everyone but her, obviously. She sighed and brought the red plastic cup to her mouth, the cool of the water inside soothing her nerves – but the reprieve was short. A similar cup was thrown into the air just a few feet from her with an ear splitting whoop, cutting even above the deafening music, and the mass of people between herself and the source did nothing to shield her as stale beer splattered all over the place.

Her lips pulled back into a disgusted scowl as she quickly wiped the liquid from her brow. Now she'd have to wash her hair _again_ when she got home. Not that she hadn't already planned on taking a dip in disinfectant after this whole ordeal was finally over, but her annoyance level rose anyway.

It was _hell_.

„Come on, can't you at least _look_ as if you're having fun? It's a party, Kagome, not some fate worse than death, you know?!“

She turned back to Sango, her friend's warm eyes looking almost violet in the blue and green spotlights. The brunette's exasperation with her was clear in her raised voice, even though it was still barely audible over the bass thumping from the speakers.

„..I beg to differ..“, she murmured and ducked behind the cup once more, subtly glancing towards the staircase over the plastic rim. The other girl groaned and pushed her shoulder lightly even though she couldn't have understood a word she just said, and Kagome smiled. „What? I'm here, right? I'll do the tech, and once that contest is over I'll pack up and go home – no, don't even _start_!“

Sango obviously wanted to argue with her, but she quickly cut her off before the other woman could even utter a word. A huff left her red lips when she took another look around. It wasn't like she wanted her friends to have a bad time because of her. They were the entire reason she was here in the first place.

But still, how could those parties even be so popular?

„I know, Kag“, Sango shouted back, and pink and black clouded her vision as she was pulled into a quick hug by the brunette girl, „Miroku's really grateful – me too! We'd just really like you to have some fun for once, you know?“ She pulled back, the neon magenta accents on her off-shoulder shirt flashing beautifully in the lighting, and Kagome just groaned with a smile.

„I know, Sango! And I _am_ having fun, see?“

She brought her right hand between their faces and mimicked an unenthused twirl towards the ceiling with her pointer finger – easily her best dance move if you asked her – and the other girl's laugh had her snort as well. Maybe she really should let loose a bit. She found she actually enjoyed the feeling of her best friend beside her as they danced to the totally bad House the guys from Miroku's fraternity blasted from her poor, poor equipment.

„Still”, she shouted, trying to be heard but failing epically, “who even listens to this kind of music voluntarily? I mean – “

Kagome's rant was broken off abruptly when a loud _„ARE YOU ALL READY?!“_ blasted from the speakers and the crowd went totally wild around them. She turned back to Sango and opened her mouth, but Miroku's amplified voice cut her off again. _„I CAN'T HEAR YOU, PEOPLE! I SAID: ARE YOU READY?!“_

The second response was even more deafening than the first. Kagome just sighed and quickly motioned towards the stage, already pulling away from her friend. Understanding, Sango nodded back and quickly hugged her once more.

„Have fun!“

She waved as Kagome started to push her way through the crazy crowd that only grew now that people from the kitchen and gardens started to file in as well to see the bands. The plastic cup got squished in her hand and she was just about to start screaming when she finally arrived at the small separate area set up at the foot of the stage. Climbing over the wooden plank they had set up to protect her equipment from the inebriated people jumping around, she nodded to Jakotsu with a grin and took the place at the mixing console in front of her, glad her eccentric friend would be standing next to her to make sure no one dared to mess with the electronics.

„Who's first?“, she shouted to the black-haired man, once again shocked by the accuracy with which he always did his make up. The saphire blue slices of eyeliner tracing down his cheeks just below his eyes seemed sharp enough to draw blood once again. Her voice totally drowned in the noise from the crowd, even though the music had finally stopped for Miroku's introduction, but her arts colleague understood her anyway.

„`Once More´“ _,_ he answered with a quick glance to a sheet on the table in front of them. „They're doin' pop or somethin' – music's on tape, they just need four mics!“ He handed her a USB stick and she shook her head in disbelief. What the hell was wrong with people today; couldn't they even play their own instruments anymore today?

Setting up her laptop and logging on quickly, she opened her recording software and pulling the track inside with an irritated pout. Jakotsu's shoulders shook next to hers as he laughed at her antics, shrugging easily. He was always one to not really give a damn about unnecessary rules. „Pretty sure playback isn't what the guys wanted when promoting a band contest, but whatever.“ Handing her a jack cable, an easy grin pulled on his dark red lips, and she just laughed at the amused sparkle in his dark eyes.

The settings were done in mere minutes and she handed the mics to the band guys, letting out a quiet sigh when she dropped back onto her small stool.

If she had known how her college life would turn out, she might not have gotten that excited about it in high school. Moving into her first flat all on her own, getting into Japan's best sound engineering program, just finally starting her own life far away from home with her best friends right by her side..

She really shouldn't even complain – all of those things _had_ actually happened like that.

But just about anything else she'd wanted went straight downhill from there.

Throwing Jakotsu an exasperated look and prompting another laugh from him, she finally threw a thumbs up to the boy band crowding the stage before pulling the left side of her earphones on. Her fingers moved along the sliders and the volume turned up, finishing the quick second soundcheck now that all those people were filling the floor, and letting the pre-recorded beat fill the room until the crowd went wild. 'Once More' started their show in true boy band fashion, sliding dance moves and all that stuff, and she sighed as one of those standard pop beats filled her ears.

It wasn't the first time she'd managed the sound for Miroku's frat when they threw some of their 'interactive' parties – those anyone-can-join contests they did once in a while actually were pretty popular. The mass of people dancing and jumping to the beat right now while screaming at the top of their lungs only proved that point.

As it was, she knew what to expect already, so she hadn't really had high hopes of hearing anything she'd really like while doing it again – but she'd _really_ expected the bands to at least play their own instruments. Her brown eyes snapped back to the blonde pretty-boys moving over the stage like a revival of US5, and she just couldn't help but wonder if she'd made the right choice of career if ninety percent of the people here like _that_ kind of music so much.

Miroku came on again, moderating the event like a pro as always and even titling her the 'Queen Of Sound' during a quick round of thanks, prompting a loud cheer of the crowd. Awkwardly waving at the screeching people, she immediately threw a murderous glare at the smirking pervert who was announcing the next band on stage for the umpteenth time that night.

Band after band came and went, leaving her to plug and unplug their gear, meshing the sounds with concentration and care even though her frustration with this whole party scene rose higher with every other refrain filtering through her headphones. It was nearing one in the morning, and she was honestly astounded they hadn't had any noise complaints yet – but with the house belonging to one of the most popular fraternities on campus it probably wasn't really that much of a surprise.

She actually had no idea about fraternities and clubs and whatnot, so who was she to judge them for partying? A few years back she'd hoped to be like all the other people here – to cheer like them, dance and flirt, all of it with some boyfriend who'd be good-looking and kind, who'd love her like no tomorrow, whom she'd share her free time with, who'd support her in anything she did. His golden eyes warming every time they fell on her, white hair feeling like silk underneath her fingers and canines showing with every little smile he'd offer before leading down and –

She shuddered a breath, forcing her mind back to the present instead of wallowing in wishful thinking.

Making a grab for her cup, she gulped down the rest of her water and set the plastic back on the table with entirely too much force. It was pathetic. Here she was, twenty-one years old, and still as hung up on Inuyasha as the first time she'd met him in middle school. A strand of charcoal hair fell into her eyes as she shook her head, the on and off of her headphones slowly forcing it out of her messy bun. She brushed it behind her ear, feet tapping the floor impatiently in her heavy Dr. Martens.

They were friends, _best_ friends practically – if it wasn't for Sango and the fact that she could never ever confide her true feelings to him. And she knew his feelings towards her were those he'd have towards a little sister or something, totally understood in on a rational level, but that didn't make it any easier to listen to him talk about _Kikyou_ in his friendly attempt to include her in his life.

Running her fingers over the sliders, she motioned to the girls on stage that it was fine to unplug their guitars now, when Miroku jumped up next to them with his microphone, prompting another wave of cheers.

„Thank you, ladies – it was _magical_!“

Kagome had to snort at the disgruntled look he received from the feminist band behind him at the statement, but the black haired man didn't even seem to notice it and just went on, twirling his finger around the cable with a wide grin. „Alright guys – I hope you enjoyed all of that so far! We got two more bands coming up, and then were gonna do the vote!“ Loud whooping and shouting filled the otherwise silent room and Kagome just shook her head, smiling fondly at her best friends boyfriend.

Miroku was born to do this kind of thing, while she herself couldn't even stand the thought of stepping onto a stage.

„As most of you know, our own band will be the grad finale – but it wouldn't be any fun if there wasn't some other fraternity here to challenge us to the title of 'Best Frat Band'!“ Her eyebrow rose at that – it was the first time she heard of other fraternities taking part in their little party. „So now, my dear boys and girls, please welcome Canis Lupus from Phi Kappa Lambda!“

_What in the world..?_

Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion – she'd never heard of a frat like that. Had they ever been at one of these parties before? She honestly didn't think so. Then again, she wasn't really a social butterfly, and she probably wouldn't even know about this frat if it wasn't for Miroku joining last year.

But still, _Canis Lupus_ – what the hell sort of name was that? Were they all majoring biology or something? It kind of would be fitting for Inuyasha to join them instead of Miroku's band, she mused, before forcefully shoving any thought of the Hanyou into a small, small box in the blackest depths of her mind.

She shook her head and went back to moving the sliders down and plugging in first the shiny grey bass and then the beautiful black guitar that were handed to her over the mixing console without really seeing anything. God, why did she have to think of Inuyasha again as soon as the band name was mentioned? He was a _dog_ hanyou – there was honestly no direct connection to wolves to make, and she hated herself for her own thoughts that moment.

„You okay, darling?“ Jakotsu's black eyes came into focus, and she forced a little smile as she looked down, turning the volume up once more for another short soundcheck. She was so distracted, it was awful – and nothing was worse to her than a job half-assed. Motioning towards the stage distractedly she pulled the headphone over her right ear again and concentrated on her mixing console. At least, until his big hand lightly settled on her shoulder, making her bite her lip. „Is it Inuyasha again? Kagome, you have to _tell_ him .. “

Shaking her head and throwing a quick thumbs up to the band while looking down, she suddenly had to fight back tears. Her hands gripped the table in front of her like a lifeline, and if it wasn't for all of her stuff lying around here, she probably would have bolted. But Jakotsu was her friend, and she knew he only worried about her, just like all of her friends did – aside from the dog-eared, white haired friend slash year-long crush who treated her like a buddy and shared all of his girl stories with her and slept over from time to time because he obviously didn't even see her as a girl or whatever and –

Just why did it all have to be so _hard_?

Why didn't he _understand_?

And what was she supposed to _do_?

She couldn't just distance herself – he didn't even mean any harm with his actions, didn't even _consider_ any of those feeling she had for him, so how could she just leave him like that? He wouldn't even understand where the problem was, and she'd only explain it to him over her dead body. Besides, first and foremost, he was her _best_ _friend._ She'd known him even longer than she'd known Sango, and before all of that mess had started to unfold, she'd told him anything that was going on in her life. She trusted him completely; how could she just throw something like that away?

Her mind was running a mile a minute, and she felt just about ready to throw up, when suddenly –

„Hey there, guys..“

A deep, calm voice suddenly washed over her and immediately drew her attention to the stage for the first time in the last hour.

The guy spoke into the microphone in front of him, guitar hanging lazily from his shoulder, and Kagome was instantly drawn to his eyes as the crowd erupted into the loudest cheers she'd heard so far – were they _green_? She couldn't really see it as he faced halfway away from where she was positioned beneath the side of the stage, and the annoying lights still washed everything into an unhealthy shade of blue and green, but their color was mesmerizing anyway. Bright and clear, almost as if they held no pupil at all – it was weird, really, but he somehow made it work. „Thanks for having us, and also, thanks for the quick soundcheck, lady.“

Her eyes widened as he turned towards her slightly and tipped two of his fingers against his temple in what must have been meant to be the imaginary tip of a hat, but his dark, long hair wasn't covered by anything. Instead, it was pulled back into a high ponytail that swished lightly as he smiled at her briefly and turned back to the crowd. She let go of the breath she hadn't even noticed she had been holding when he brought his hand back down to grip the neck of his Fender. Were those... claws?

„We're not exactly into pop, to be honest“, he went on, and his voice was raspy, a little irony swinging with it as his lips pulled into a private little smirk, “but we still might have something you'll like. Have fun, guys!“

Kagome watched as he turned back towards the other two men on stage to tell them something; one behind the drums and the other holding the bass she'd checked earlier. The two nodded with wide grins and she saw his own turn almost _wolfish_ as the drummer brought his sticks down on his tom-toms and hi-hat, throwing the crowd already into a frenzy before the guitars even started to join into the rhythmic beat.

Her eyes widened – that didn't even sound half bad. The guy, seemingly the front singer, skipped towards the bassist and for the first few beats they moved together, obviously enjoying the attention. They moved their heads and bodies to the music until the man with the ponytail slunk back to the microphone and started on the lyrics.  
  


„ _Look around the writings on the wall – don't you think we're all feeling crazed?_

_In a world where nothing's as it seems, paved with broken dreams, I found truth_

_Well, my god, I should know you're right_

_I should know it's right to say I thank you for my days – “  
  
_

Her mouth dropped open. What the hell was going on right now? There had _never_ been any band at these little contests that was any better than mediocre at most – never even one where the instrumental part was any good let alone the singer or even the _lyrics_ – and now these guys walked in, playing together almost perfectly, entertaining the crowd, all charisma and broad grins – and that _guy_ –  
  


„ _Come around and see the other side, stepping stones away from the limelight!_

_Come around and breathe in peace of mind,_

_And for it all, I thank you! I thank you – “  
  
_

Her heartbeat up to her throat as soon as the refrain came on, the guy's voice wrapping around her like velvet, choking her, all the right combination of hoarse and smooth, heavy yet weightless, a deep and soothing lull with enough energy to pull her under a wave of adrenaline.

_Breathe in … breathe in peace of mind...?_

A spike of panic went through her, red and hot, as if he knew just what had been on her mind for the last months – _years_ – as if he'd just pulled the trigger and shot her straight between the eyes with that knowing, ironic little grin of his, and yet he wasn't even looking in her direction.  
  


„ _Sit down, lose yourself in thought, and then you mind find out it's all we've got_

_Well take a chance, the future's in your hands,_

_make it what you can before your time has reached the end – “  
  
_

She couldn't breathe.

What the hell was wrong with her? The chorus came and went again, the long-haired singer jumping back to the bassist with a feral „ _Yeah_!“ before pulling some solo from his clawed fingers as if his life depended on it and she just _couldn't_ _breathe._

Her hands were gripping the edge of the table, holding on for dear life until her knuckles turned white and her half-zipped, lumpy black sweatshirt jacket fell haphazardly over her right shoulder, but she couldn't bring herself to right it – it felt far too stuffy over her blood red tank top dress, anyway, and sweat was forming on her neck and back the longer the song went on.

Her right hand came up to claw at the suddenly far too tight leather string holding a little metallic pendant against her throat. Suddenly everything felt restricting, and she registered that she was just about crashing into hyperventilation, but she couldn't really stop it anyway.

The man danced back to the microphone and went into a last repeat of the chorus just when she thought she might topple over, and as soon as the last note ebbed away an eerie silence followed –

\- until suddenly everyone was _screeching_ and shouting and cheering and her head felt so light, she was feeling faint.

In an automatic movement, she unplugged the instruments, not even caring that the guys from the band hadn't even unplugged them from their guitars yet, and just quickly grabbed new cables for the instruments Miroku and the boys would need. She was so damn out of it she didn't even think of Inuyasha anymore, even though he'd be on stage in a few seconds along with Jakotsu and Miroku.

The eccentric arts student next to her noticed her attitude right away, though.

„Kagome?“, he must have actually been worried, otherwise she'd still be 'darling' or 'sweetie', and his confused voice met her ears through all the applause and cheering. She could only shake her head without looking at her concerned friend, checking the mix with her headphones one last time before turning the volume up again and hopping over the wooden border separating the console from the screaming crowd without another word, leaving him and her other two friends to adjust their settings themselves if they weren't satisfied with her job.

She started to push through the crowd towards the front door, everybody already far to inebriated or otherwise distracted to notice anything about her strange behavior, but the insane mass of people didn't give even a bit.

Panicking, she changed direction and ran up the stairs instead. Her hands were shaking, and she knew she'd have to get down there sooner rather than later, but they'd probably play more than one song anyway as initiators of the whole thing, so she'd have about fifteen minutes to get a grip again.

Turning left, she saw an open door and ran for it without thinking, quickly finding herself in some sort of walk-in closet. Dropping to her knees between masses of bed sheets and towels that would have been laughable in _any_ other situation, the door slid back towards the frame behind her almost lazily without closing entirely, and the only light inside was streaming in from the hall through the gap.

„What the hell is wrong with you, Higurashi?“, she gasped when her right hand moved up to tightly clutch the crimson jersey of her dress above her heart, jacket askew and black leggings rubbing uncomfortably against her knees on the carpet floor. Hot breath left her mouth in helpless pants, but she couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs even though she took greedy gulps of it every other second. „What the hell?“, she choked, „what the hell, what the hell, what the – “

A sudden knock on the half open door, and she swore her heart stopped.

„Hello? Are you in there – “

Brown eyes widened as her gaze snapped up to the man suddenly standing in the doorway of the closet, making the small place look even more cramped with his height. The lighting was pretty bad, the only rays of it coming from the hallway, but after the last couple of minutes she was sure she'd never forget that voice again. Even without the wide, electric blue eyes staring down at her in shock, she'd have known _him_ anywhere at this point.

Averting her gaze immediately, she tried to look at least a little composed. But being found sunken to one's knees in a closet, no lights on, and breathing the way she did right then was just about the furthest from composed you could get she reckoned.

Her chest heaved with the effort of reigning the sobs in, but even with the music starting up again downstairs he seemingly heard those pathetic noises of hers anyway, and it didn't even take half a second before he dropped to his knees as well.

„ _Fuck_ “, he pressed out, his voice still sounding unbelievably smooth and deep even as it took a frantic and stressed quality. „You were – I just wanted – “ His hands shot out and she guessed he wanted to grip her shoulders, but his confidence obviously left him halfway there, so he just held them up between them awkwardly as he swallowed and grabbed for words. „What's going on – did anything happen?“

The situation couldn't have possibly gotten any worse she decided, shaking her head and pressing her eyes closed as she tried and tried and tried to _just breathe normally again, goddamnit,_ but it wasn't getting any better, and it was when black started to creep into the sides of her vision that he seemed to notice that as well.

„Shit, look at me, okay?“, his clawed hands settled on her shoulders for real this time, the right gripping her sweatshirt jacket while the left spread over her bare skin where the cloth had dropped down before. When she didn't lift her head to do as he said, his palms quickly moved towards her neck, thumbs spreading out to the edge of her jaw and tilting her face up until his gaze found hers. „Just look at me and breathe, okay? Breathe with me.“

God, this was so embarrassing – but she was bordering unconscious right then, so she just tried to nod weakly. He was obviously satisfied with her answer, and his thumbs started to stroke along her skin. „Okay. Just breathe. In – “, he inhaled soundly, as if he had to teach the mere idea to her, and she did her best to mimic his calm inhalation, „ – and out. Yeah. Great. Just like that. And in again.“

His eyes bore into hers with such earnestness and worry, her own closed in mortification. This was easily the worst that ever happened to her, and she wasn't exactly known to be all that lucky to start with. Another soft stroke of his clawed fingers and her eyes fluttered open to meet his again. They sat in front of each other, his knees brushing hers as her breathing finally started to calm down again and she was able to take a stuttering lungful of air for the first time in what felt like _years._

“You're doing great. Just relax, you're fine. In and out, nice and slow, okay?“

She would have laughed at his words in any other situation. It was so obvious that he was in over his head, that he had no idea how to handle her, but she had to admit he actually did a really good job. Her head slumped forward tiredly until her forehead found his right shoulder, but he didn't seem to mind as he kept his hands on her neck and the soft strokes continued with her slow in- and exhales. A low hum started in his chest, and she felt the sound in her head, relaxing her further, even though it was his voice that brought on that panic in the first place. It was weird, to say the least – him singing in order to calm her down – but she honestly didn't want him to stop.  
  


„ _One by one, we stand beneath the sun,_

_with arms high open wide ..“  
  
_

God, his voice was nice. It was as if she could just let go of any weight on her chest like he let go of the pressure in his throat as he sang down the scale, all easy, effortless. She inhaled and slowly moved her head back until she got some distance to the stranger cradling her head.

„I – “, her voice sounded so hoarse, and she flinched, taking another deep breath. „ _Thank_ you.“ A slight grin pulled on his lips, icy blue eyes flashing with humor, and she was reminded that their song before was most likely called that. An amused huff left her when she moved her shaky hands up to swipe all the loose strands of charcoal hair back that managed to escape her bun in her frenzy. „I don't even know what to say, I just –“

He only nodded and shifted until he sat back in front of her, one leg pulled up to lean his elbow on his knee while the other laid sort of cross legged beneath it on the carpet. Silence stretched between them as his sharp eyes catalogued her every move, and the embarrassment from earlier came back full force. As a hot blush spread over her cheeks, she averted her gaze to take in his form for the first time.

A simple, baggy long sleeved shirt hung from his torso, pulled back until his elbows and just leaving his forearms visible; probably a dark grey, even if the dim light made it seem almost black now. It was about the farthest from all of the muscle shirts she'd seen today, but as he leaned back on his left hand and it pulled taught over his chest, she could already guess at the muscles and toned skin that might lay beneath all that cloth, and she'd almost bet that he'd look a lot better shirtless than all those dumb jocks running around downstairs.

Simple, light blue jeans got his understated style across even more somehow, and she almost raised an eyebrow at the way he'd pulled his dark leather belt through his jeans one loop earlier than usual, letting the buckle rest lazily against his right hip in true punk fashion. As her gaze roamed over well-worn Converse, he let out a snort, and her gaze snapped back to meet his in question.

„Like what you see?“, he grinned, and she could tell he meant no harm with the question – most probably still trying to get her mind off her panic attack before – but she couldn't help but feel triggered. Huffing in annoyance she crossed her legs beneath her as well as the tight tank top dress allowed and folded her arms, raising her chin indignantly and looking to the wall.

„Huge assumptions there. If your head gets any bigger, you might not fit through that door again.“

At that a chuckle broke from his throat, and she couldn't help but stare as he laughed loudly at her stupid remark before fixing his sharp gaze on her again.

„Nah, don't need to assume. Got a keen nose, ya know?“, his smile turned wolfish as he lightly tapped it with the index finger of his propped up arm for emphasis, and her eyes went wide. Another blush spread across her neck, and with the way his grin only got bigger she suddenly just knew that he could see _her_ much better in the almost-dark than she _him._

_Wolfish..._

„Canis Lupus“, she murmured in horror, and he laughed quietly at her realization while she groaned loudly into her hands from utter mortification. „ _Wolf youkai“_ , she murmured from between her fingers, not even needing his confirming nod anymore at that point. „...You're such a jerk.“

His laugh this time was a little louder, the startled sound rushing through her in the cramped space like a wave, and his head dropped to the side as he regarded her thoughtfully once more with a last chuckle.

„Don't be embarrassed. You smell so much nicer right now than back down before – I was actually getting worried, you know?“

She let out an incredulous gasp. „Are you telling me that I _stink?!_ “

It was so much easier to fixate on that part of his statement than to be forced to talk about the source of her presumably _bad_ smell before – and his words actually had her a bit offended, so she just fixed him with a demanding glare, feeling immense satisfaction when his blue eyes widened in shock and he sat up straight, moving into a proper cross-legged position and throwing his arms up as if to defend himself. She almost had to laugh, but she kept her poker face on, if only to watch him squirm.

„Wah – _no_! I never said anything about you smelling bad, okay? I just meant your scent was turning more and more terrified while we were playing, so I actually wanted to ask you if I offended you or something.“ He put a hand behind his head in obvious discomfort, and his voice dropped to a murmur.

Her brows furrowed in confusion as she couldn't follow any longer what he was talking about, but he fixed the wall with an embarrassed glare, not noticing her.

„If you thought I was being sarcastic about your quick soundcheck, well, I was not. Okay, I thought it might be shit with the little time you took, but it was actually the best we had so far, so I just wanted to.. you know.. thank you or something. Sorry if the attention made you uncomfortable.“

Her eyes widened when his head turned back to her, his face seeming a little redder than before, but with the poor lightning it could have just been her imagination. She quickly swallowed the lump in her throat and hurried to answer.

„No! I mean – it wasn't because of you! Or, at least not because you talked to me. That was nice, actually – “ Now it was her turn to rub her neck in embarrassment while glancing away from his surprised stare. „It's just.. Everything's been kinda, well, not really shit, but.. okay, yeah, actually shit lately, and your lyrics just hit a little too close to home, you know?” That, and she'd never had any decent bands to check in all the time she had been doing this for Miroku, so he'd just knocked her off her feet for a moment there, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

She couldn't meet his astounded gaze any longer, so she awkwardly got to her feet and offered a hand for him to get up as well; a silent statement that the conversation was thus finished as far as she was concerned. He looked up at her, an unreadable expression on his sharp face, and she was about to let her hand drop back to her side – what human even offered a hand to a _youkai – s_ he had to be out of her mind for good – when his much bigger one slid over her palm and grasped her wrist.

Her mouth dropped open as she reflexively tightened her grip on his wrist as well to pull him to his feet, even though she didn't do any of the work as he seemingly got up by himself anyway while holding onto her.

Just as she was about to let go of him as she turned to the door with a nod, his grasp on her tightened barely noticeably, and she turned back to see him grab for words. The light from the hallway fell like a slice over the right side of his face as he looked at down at her with the same unreadable expression from before.

„I'd kinda expected to feel ecstatic if my lyrics moved people someday, but I can't say

I'm all that excited about it now“, he trailed off uneasily, and she was just about to object when he smiled with a shake of his head and let his fingers trail from her wrist to her palm calmly. „But I guess it's kind of a compliment in a weird way, so thanks. Anyway, think we might be able to talk a little under less stressing circumstances next time..?“

Her eyebrow rose – was it just her or did he _actually_ sound hopeful there?

Could he be _serious_ about wanting to talk to her again after that train wreck of a situation just now?

She was just about to call him out on it, but a snarky retort on how he surely couldn't wait to meet the nutcase from the walk-in closet one more time died in her throat when she was suddenly pulled out of the way just in time to narrowly avoid being hit by the door as it swung open carelessly.

„Hey Kag – what the hell are you doing in a closet? Get down there right – “

And she suddenly knew how a deer in the front lights felt when Inuyasha appeared in the doorway out of thin air, quickly shutting up when he saw her standing in front of him, pressed against that stranger's side from when he had pulled her against him to prevent an injury that would have surely happened had the wood reached her nose. She was just about to step away when a hard look suddenly flashed over the hanyou's face and his lips pulled back into a sneer.

"You gotta be kidding, Kagome", and the way her name cut from his lips had never sounded so wrong before, but she didn't get past opening her mouth to protest before he pushed on already. It seemed he was getting angrier with the second. "Everybody is down there waiting for you to get your shit done, and you just mess around with fucking _Akiyama_ of all people in our damn _closet_ ? Are you fucking _serious_?"

She was struck into silence at that, looking at her best friend totally dumbfounded while he stepped back, shaking his head in disbelief, anger clear as day on his face as he almost spat what she guessed was the name of the stranger next to her. What the hell was his problem? She hadn't even _dated_ anyone properly so far apart from some flings here and there because she was so hung up on that idiot in front of her, and here he went accusing _her_ as if he was her father - _him_ of all people.

"Now wait a second, Takahashi - it wasn't like that at all", the man next to her tried to clarify, only for _him_ to be pinned with that burning amber stare instead, and if Inuyasha had been harsh with her before, he was downright _feral_ with him then, stepping closer and grabbing his shirt with a low growl.

"No one was talking to _you,_ wolf cub", he grit out, making the other raise an eyebrow in annoyance. "So take your hands off and get lost, _now."_

With too much force the hanyou let go of him again, and she could see the anger level of the wolf youkai next to her rising - just like her own.

"Listen Inuyasha - not that it's any of your business, but nothing happened. We talked, end of story. So stop being rude and let me pass, you idiot."

"Nothing happened?” Amber eyes widened indignantly. “Doesn't fucking look like it, woman! Stop fooling around and get your work done so we can all go home in this life!"

Her patience snapped in front of her mind's eye.

"You _are_ home, Inuyasha!”, she exploded. “Stop screaming at me just because Kikyou makes you run all the way to her place in the middle of the damn night! I don't even get paid for this, what the hell does that tell you about fooling around, huh?!"

She huffed an angry breath trying to get her anger under control once more, but he just had to have the last word.

"Stop being a jealous bitch!", he snapped defensively, "Just because you want to have a relationship as well you get it on with the next best idiot that makes a move on you – in a fucking closet! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Her mouth snapped shut.

Well, she had to admit that kind of stung. Her head snapped back as if he'd slapped her, but she couldn't do much else but blink at him in surprise – she had almost felt panic well up at his spot-on observation of her feelings, but his interpretation about it was so unbelievably ridiculous, it was stunning. She didn't even know what stung more: that he really believed her to be so desperate for a relationship that she'd stoop so low, or that he didn't even consider the possibility of being the entire reason for her jealousy himself.

She honestly didn't know what to say to Inuyasha's outburst, but no reaction of hers was required as her new acquaintance didn't seem to like that last bit all that much.

A low growl of the tall man next to her was the only warning they got before he suddenly grabbed Inuyasha's shirt collar in a clawed hand and pulled him in towards his snarling face.

"Stop talking to her like that, mutt face! Is your damn blood so watered-down you can't even smell a fucking thing anymore, hanyou? She was having a – "

"Stop it!", she screeched before he could blurt out anything about her little episode back there. The shrill yelp made both of the men flinch instantly, but she totally ignored it, instead turning on the wolf youkai with a frown. "Don't talk down to him just because he's half human – it's insulting both of us!"

His bright eyes widened in shock, and she was almost sorry for reprimanding him when the self-satisfied ' _Hah_ !' of the half demon next to them had her anger returning full force, and she immediately whirled in _him_ to vent her rising frustrations.

"And _you!_ You're such a _jerk_ – don't even get me started on how dumb _you_ acted just now. Go ahead and wait for me downstairs, I'll be there in a minute."

The hanyou's triumphant grin vanished as soon as it came around, and now it was the wolf youkai that tried hard not to look too smug as Inuyasha sputtered. " _What_?! But everybody is waiting - "

"They'll survive two minutes", she growled, pointing towards the stairs for emphasis, "Now _get lost._ "

“Grrrah – fucking _fine_! Stupid wench!” The door frame cracked beneath a sudden frustrated punch of the hanyou's first, but nonetheless he turned away from them in obvious irritation and stomped down the stairs so loudly, it even drowned out the party goers downstairs. Her shoulders slumped. Why did he always have to be so stubborn? Tiredly, she ran a hand over her temple only to be brought back to the situation at hand by the man still standing next to her uneasily.

"Well, that was awkward", he began, and a short laugh at what had to be the understatement of the year blurted from her lips before she could stop herself. His lips widened into an easy smile, for once not showing his strong canines with mirth. "I'm sorry if I offended you – there's nothing wrong with being human. I shouldn't have said that." He trailed off with a shrug and scrunched up his nose while looking towards the stairs in disdain, not seeing when she lifted her eyebrow questioningly before he found her gaze again and shrugged lightly. "But he's a dick, so I'm not actually sorry about offending _him._ "

Another startled laugh from her. „Yeah, he can be difficult, alright.“ He snorted at her downplaying, and her lips pulled into a small grin. „Anyway, I don't really know what was wrong with me back there, but I'd probably be unconscious in the that closet right now if it wasn't for you.. So, thanks – ?“

„ – Kouga. Kouga Akiyama“, he supplied, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets with ease. „And I'm glad I could help.“

His bright, but tired eyes met hers as if to bring his point across, and now that she thought about it, the whole situation had to have been kind of nerve wrecking for him, too. First her panic attack, and then her overprotective would-be brother; she groaned in mortification and put her head in her palm, shaking it slowly.

„I'm really sorry for being a bother, Kouga“, his name rolled off her tongue pretty nicely, but she didn't really want to get into that right now.

Turning towards the stairs, he easily fell into step with her and chuckled quietly. „Nah, don't worry about it, Kagome.“ The way her name vibrated from his smooth voice was certainly pleasant, she'd admit, so perhaps she wouldn't chew Inuyasha out for giving her personal information to total strangers in a damn closet. At least, not much. „I mean, don't get me wrong – I totally wouldn't have minded spending time with you in there in a different context. But I'm good.“

She had to grip the rail, trying not to fall the last steps from the stairs from laughter at his bad attempt on flirting, but he just grinned at her, all sharp teeth and piercing eyes. About to retort something when they finally reached the ground floor again, they were suddenly startled as two other men – his band mates, from the looks of it – stopped next to them, quickly informing Kouga that they'd already packed up his stuff and were ready to ' _get the hell outta this damn pop-house-hell_ ', as they so eloquently put it, making her laugh once again.

„Mainstream is coming for you, guys – run for the hills“, she chuckled, and their laughs were as simultaneous as they were loud. Starting to pull away towards her console with a last smile and a wave, she was surprised by the sudden light grip around her wrist holding her back.

“Wait a sec!”

She saw Kouga reach into the backpocket of his jeans with a quick hand to pull out a little booklet, the ballpoint pen clamped around it his obvious objective. Removing it from between the pages, he shoved the softcover between his teeth to free his hands – and then he proceeded to write a string of numbers onto the smooth skin of her left wrist.

Wide-eyed, she watched what had to be his phone number appear beneath his tanned, lithe fingers in the neatest handwriting she had ever seen. His right hand was so gentle as it cradled hers, it almost distracted her from the surprising revelation that he seemed to be left-handed, even though he had played his guitar right-handed like most people did, and when her gaze moved back up to his face, stunning blue eyes still focussed on her arm, she finally got a look at the book he had been carrying around with him –

“ _Titus Andronicus?_ “, she read out loud before she could stop herself, and his gaze snapped back to her as he closed the pen again and pulled the booklet out of his mouth with a sheepish grin. It looked awfully like one of those books she'd had to read back in high school, and if she had seen correctly before he had quickly put it away again, the cover had read 'Shakespeare' as well.

She stared at him incredulously – why was he running around a _party_ with a _Shakespeare_ copy of all things?

“Dumbest tragedy of all times”, he offered with a sheepish smile, and suddenly she was pulled into a warm, gentle hug, and her eyes went wide. “Don't ever read it – it's not gonna be worth your time. Take care, Kagome”, Kouga murmured into her ear, and some strands of his dark hair brushed her nose as he held her briefly before letting go for good and stepping towards his smirking mates. “See ya around, hopefully.”

And with that he turned around, easy smile still on his lips, and vanished into the crowd, leaving her to stand there like an idiot for what felt like minutes before she finally got her bearings again and walked back over to her table to finally pack up and go home.

But first she needed to find Sango – or rather, the purse she had given her friend for safe-keeping. Staring down at the dark ink on her arm she felt a small grin tug on her lips, deciding to quickly save the number to her contacts before another shower of stale beer might be able to wash it away accidentally.

Parties, she found herself musing, might not actually be _that_ bad, after all.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the songs mentioned are exclusively by The Calling; 'Thank You', and 'One By One' (and actually this whole fic is kind of built around one of their older albums so far, title as well as chapter titles.. god, I'm a nerd...)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading!


	2. Just That Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Now I'm no expert – but shouldn't the ball go through the hoop, actually?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... alright. okay. it's been what - nine months? i've sort of been MIA, and i had no ideas whatsoever on how to continue this story, so it took ages, and i'm terribly sorry! if there's even anyone left out there who's still following this - please accept my sincerest apologies *bow*!
> 
> so, what have got now? some drama, some hints to possible future trouble? a bitch fight, handsome and charming Kouga, some nerd stuff, and jealous best friends. well, i guess I kinda went the whole nine yards with this...
> 
> let me know what you think and have fun reading this car accident of a chapter!
> 
> love you! <3

The rest of the night was a rush.

Jakotsu's worried gaze seemed to stick to her, even though it turned into a confused and interested stare as soon as he was sure her mood wasn't quite the same as when she had left them before. Miroku and Sango came around as well, everybody helping unplugging her equipment and transporting it into one of their unused rooms until they'd get around to load it into Miroku's car and drive it back to her place as soon as they weren't going to fall asleep standing up anymore. They all seemed to notice that something had happened, and Inuyasha's grumpy attitude with her along with some comments about her questionable morals obviously left them confused, but everybody seemed to get that this conversation was best to be had another time.

„Thanks again, Kag“, Miroku murmured into her neck when hugging her goodbye at their door, the time nearing three o'clock and making it no wonder he was dead on his feet as he let go and stepped back for Sango to hug her as well. Her flatmate was going to be staying at Miroku's room upstairs, to no one's surprise. „I'm gonna call you sometime tomorrow – today – to talk about when I should bring your stuff over. And before you start: _no_ , I won't let you help loading it into _or_ out of the car. You did enough, we're not gonna make you do even more work.“

She wound her arms around the brunette girl's neck and found his gaze over her shoulder with a smile. „Alright. Whenever is fine – it's Sunday anyway, I'm gonna be home most of the day I guess.“ Pulling back and turning towards the miffed hanyou waiting by the door, she waved them goodbye and stepped out into the cool night air with her white-haired friend.

They walked down the sidewalk quietly, the silence that hung over the usually so energetic campus proved to be a nice change as the buildings went by one by one. Humming lightly to herself and breathing in the fresh night air, she stuffed her hands into her sweatshirt jacket while her head rolled back to take a look at the stars, barely visible through thin lines of mist clouding the fall night. It was actually getting colder already, the late September temperatures chilling her a little, but for the first time in the last few weeks, her head felt totally clear as she inhaled.

„I'm sorry.“ Throwing her head back up to look at the hanyou walking next to her in surprise, she almost lost her stride, having to quicken her steps in order to keep up with him as his gaze locked on the ground in thought. „I shouldn't have blown up like that – and he was right, I could smell you weren't even doing anything in there, so I shouldn't have talked to you like that. I'm sorry, Kagome.“

Falling into step with him again, she hummed in thought and turned back to the pavement in front of them. It was strange; they had known each other for so long, but she could count the times he actually apologized to her for doing something wrong up to now on one hand. „It's fine. I know you're just worried about me – but there was no need. He was just talking to me, that's all.“

“I know, it's just – “, he trailed off, obviously troubled as a scowl rushed over his chiseled face. “It's _Akiyama,_ of all people. Why the hell did you have to hang out with the likes of _him_?”

She saw him frown from her peripherals, and her eyebrow rose in disbelief. She had totally forgotten to ask him about it, but he'd also called Kouga by his name back in the closet. How did they know each other? And more importantly, what was all this animosity even about? She couldn't remember ever having heard the handsome singer's name from her best friend; but if he was that upset by the other man, there surely had to be a story behind it. And to be honest, she felt a little hurt that the white-haired man hadn't felt the need to share it with her so far.

“Is there a problem with Kouga?”

So she used his first name on purpose, just to try and hit a nerve – sue her. And boy, did she ever get a reaction to that.

“ _Kouga_?”, he spun around this time, stopping dead in his tracks and prompting her to come to a halt as well shortly after. His eyes narrowed dangerously on her as he took a step closer. “You're on a first name basis with that moron?”, he all but barked, and in a flash, all of her seemingly forgotten anger from before reared its head again.

“I've only seen one person behaving like a total moron tonight, Inuyasha – and it sure as hell wasn't Kouga”, she snapped right back, watching his eyes widen in understanding. He jerked back, almost as if she'd hit him, but she couldn't even bring herself to try and feel sorry.

Shaking her head in annoyance, she started walking again, only noticing him falling into step with her again a bit later, and even though she was absolutely certain he was burning to ask what they had been talking about, then, he kept his thoughts to himself while they navigated through the dark park leading up to her side of campus. A low sigh from her made him briefly look over in question, but she only shook her head again and looked up to the sky instead.

If it hadn't been for the few measly street lights illuminating the walkway, the night would have been almost pitch black, with only a few stars shining bright enough to pierce the vapor coating the air like a grey blanket. And when another waft of mist suddenly moved along, she immediately understood the reason for it.

The crescent moon came to light for a few seconds, a glowing sickle so thin already that she knew it was going to wane and vanish into nothingness within the next day.

_Is your damn blood so watered-down you can't even smell a fucking thing anymore, hanyou?_

The deep voice echoed through her head without a warning, and suddenly she understood why Inuyasha had been quite so upset before: he hadn't been able to get a good read on the situation with his most trusted sense anymore already. It was no wonder he had looked so lost.

“It's going to be a new moon soon, huh?”, she murmured, throwing him a sidelong glance. He just nodded, his fluffy white ears flattening against his head the slightest bit the only indicator of his own unease, but she could read him like a book anyway. With all the stuff that had been going on lately, she hadn't even thought about his hardships at all, to say the least.

Her course load this semester seemed to be more crushing than ever before, and taking over more of the air time on the campus radio station when her coworker unexpectedly couldn't find the time for it any longer took its toll on her free time as well. And then one of her arts professors was up in her hair about some exhibition she was supposed to contribute to along with Jakotsu, which, honestly, was an insanely generous offer to submit to some sophomores, but came around just about at the worst possible time.

“I'm sorry, Inuyasha. I totally – ”

“Don't apologize”, he cut her off abruptly, his stern stare forcing her mouth shut again. “You've had so much on your plate lately, _I_ should be the one apologizing for not helping you out more.” He smiled at her eye-roll and stepped a little closer to lazily throw an arm around her shoulder as they walked past the chemistry building; not much longer and she'd be able to drop into bed and hopefully forget all about that strange night. “Besides, I wanted to talk to you about that, anyway. I've been thinking it's time to show my other form to Kikyou..”

Her shoulders tensed a little as she returned the half-hug, but she was able to keep her face blank as she nodded thoughtfully. She had actually wondered about that for quite some time now. For years, he'd spent almost every new moon with her, feeling most comfortable in his _weak form,_ as he called it, in her presence. It was a well-rehearsed routine, one that had her expecting him on her doorstep for some sort of sleepover every other month at least, and even though he had been with Kikyou for almost all of the last year, it was something that hadn't changed at all.

“You're not feeling pressured, right?”

She immediately regretted her words as she felt his back tense underneath her arm.

Oh boy, she should have kept her mouth shut, should have just said _'Cool, go for it'_ or some other lame reassurement, anything, really, just not quite _that,_ when she knew exactly how defensive he acted about his relationship, when she knew that the reason she even asked probably wasn't even just because she was worried about her friend, but because she was actually jealous about slowly being replaced in every little aspect of his life –

“I'm not quite sure, to be honest.”

Her eyes widened and she stopped in her tracks, turning towards him in utter disbelief. Was his human side gaining the upper hand already? His voice sounded hesitant, unsure rather than the usual boldness she was used to seeing from him, and suddenly she had a feeling there was more she hadn't noticed as of late than she had thought. “..Inuyasha? What are you – “

He quickly shook his head, wiping the contemplative look from his handsome face in favour of an easy grin thrown at her before he came to a halt and she noticed that her dorm was just up ahead, their little walk now coming to an end. But this wasn't the kind of conversation she wanted to leave unfinished, and he seemed to notice as well, heaving a deep sigh before answering.

“Sounds cliché, but it's complicated. I'm not entirely sure what's going on right now, but I feel I might find out tomorrow, so I gotta do it.” Already sensing her protest, his smile finally turned honest again. “Don't worry so much, Kags. You have to trust me, okay?” Huffing irritably, she crossed her arms as he laughed quietly and quickly closed his arms around her in a brief hug before starting to walk backwards towards the part of campus Kikyou lived in, his clawed hand lifting in a lazy wave. “Talk to you soon – sleep well!”

And with that, he turned around and jumped away in mere seconds, leaving her to wonder why he had even bothered to walk the whole way with her instead of just giving her a piggyback ride like he usually did. Turning towards the entrance of her dormitory, she pulled out her girly little keychain in thought.

It seemed she wasn't the only one with a lot on their mind, lately.  
  


  
  
  


Along with the falling leaves, fall finally came around, and the large crowds usually painting the lawn in front of the main building with large specks of color finally thinned out to the occasional nature freak enjoying the silence under some tree, wrapped in a thick scarf.

As it was, her frightening little attack at the frat party from two weeks ago seemed more and more like a weird nightmare, and if it hadn't been for the recording of the contest she'd done back then as a spur of the moment action, she might have thought she had only imagined the intriguing wolf youkai altogether. However, she had two hours of bad quality material to test _all_ the new insights from her current lecture on noise filtering methods on stored on her laptop, and even with the terrible, jittery sounds of the crowd in the background, the dark, velvety voice singing in the second-to-last band left no doubt that her strange saviour actually existed in the flesh.

However, that damn recording actually was the source of her sleepless nights at the moment.

She sighed in annoyance, sinking deeper into her seat at the back of the empty advanced calculus lecture hall. Her fingers flew over the keyboard of her laptop, searching for yet another piece of information about special Fourier Transforms as she waited for Kaede to start the General Physics lecture most of the sophomores with scientific majors had to take. Most – but not _her_ this time around.

Doing the course one year early had been a great idea, in retrospect. Kagome's gotten along with the older woman straight away, her questions often leading to long talks even after the lectures were over, and as the year went by, she had promptly been asked to tutor next year's course – _this_ course – even though she had only been a freshman at that time. So here she was as a tutor for the first time, far too early due to nerves, with another ten minutes or so to go, and that _damn_ recording the only thing to distract her.

It actually shouldn't have been a problem. She'd often hear some interesting stuff in a lecture, maybe see something nice on one of her trips to the library, perhaps even read about fancy software on the internet – and then she'd try it on some tracks she had stored, test it a bit, and put it away again, keeping all the new insights within her brain for some potential use later. End of story.

However, _this_ track, the track of _Canis Lupus_ from the frat party, was different. Nudging her earphones to cover both of her ears with a frown, she pressed the grey play button for what felt like the hundredth time. Hearing the drums coming on, followed immediately by the guitars, she nodded lightly, finally feeling as if she was getting somewhere with the last little filter she'd tried – until his voice mixed in and she was just about ready to throw her damn gear all the way to the front in an atypical, stupid bout of rage she honestly couldn't explain.

”Gaaah!”, she could feel the primal growl on her throat, but the earphones muted all of the outside sound while that dark, smooth, velvety voice continued being drowned by static and noise that seemed even _worse_ than the one with the last filter she'd tried. Pulling her earphones down around her neck and pressing pause, she stared angrily at the various tracks cramping her software. Why couldn't this just _work_ , damnit? All she wanted was to hear Kouga's clear, deep timbre _exactly_ the same way it had sounded at that stupid party once again – was that too damn much to _ask_ ?! “Will you just _work_ , you little shit – “

“Going bonkers for good, Higurashi?”

Her heart just about stopped at the smooth, cool voice startling her from behind. Jumping out of her seat and whirling around, right hand protectively clutching at the dark orange cloth of her t-shirt dress, she suddenly came face to face with the beautiful, expressionless face of none other than Kikyou Hashimoto. Bangs cut straight to perfection, her coal black hair was pulled back into her usual intricate low ponytail, leaving only two strands to drop almost artistically over her shoulders as she stood in the aisle next to Kagome, watching the other woman with thinly veiled displeasure.

“K-Kikyou! Long time no see!” Her voice shook with nerves all of a sudden and she swallowed. God, just what _was_ it with that woman and her neat sweater and pencil skirt combos that never failed to make her feel cheap and plain in comparison? “W-What brings you here?”

The question was out before she could think about it, and she immediately grimaced when another flash of displeasure – or was it annoyance? – flashed over Kikyou's striking features. Raising her chin lightly, she narrowed her brown, cool eyes, and that single lifted eyebrow already told her exactly what sort of answer was to come before her best friend's girlfriend even opened that delicate, small mouth of hers – “The lecture, evidently.”

Forcing a grin, Kagome just nodded, turning back to her seat and hoping for this conversation, if you could even call it that, to end soon. More and more people were starting to filter in, and it seemed that luck was on her side, until a cold hand on her shoulder stopped her just before she could take a seat again. Turning back around, she was met with a hard gaze this time, and she suddenly knew the gods weren't on her side that day.

“It's beyond me what an arts major might be doing at a science lecture, honestly”, she spoke, and the way she put all the depreciation of the planet into the single word _arts_ was almost art in and of itself, but Kagome chose not to comment. Just like she decided not to correct the black-haired woman regarding her major being sound engineering. “However, I want you to stay away from Inuyasha and I – am I clear?”

Kagome leaned back against her table at that, their proximity a little unnerving, but the situation was ironic enough to put a little smile on her lips as her gaze settled on the ground between them to hide her expression. She couldn't, however, hide the amusement in her voice as she replied. “Copy that”, her fingers lifted in a lazy mock salute, a move she had totally _not_ stolen from a certain wolf youkai _at all_ , and she looked up again to find those brown eyes narrowed in quiet anger. Good. “Don't worry, though – an arts major probably won't make it through a science course anyway.”

Now she could almost hear the beauty gnash her teeth, and if that wasn't the most amazing sound in the world she didn't know what was. Without another word, the med student turned around and continued down the stairs to the front of the hall, though her steps didn't seem as light as they usually did.

Kagome sighed and flopped down in her chair again, suddenly feeling a deep exhaustion taking her over when she moved to put her headphones up one more time before the lecture was going to start for good, only to be interrupted _again –_ only this time around, the voice from the seat behind hers couldn't have been more different than Kikyou's cold soprano.

“.. You're not actually an arts major, are you?”

His amusement was clear as day, permeating the smooth timbre with spikes of enjoyment, and for the second time that day she whirled around totally perplexed, only to come face to face with the intriguing man whose voice had been haunting her for all of the last two weeks.

“K-Kouga?!”

He was sitting one row behind her, slightly elevated as the architect had obviously wanted to ensure a clear view of the blackboard for every student, the corner of his mouth lifting at her flabbergasted expression. Head propped up on his left palm, his sharp eyes fixed on her, and she was finally able to marvel at the light shade in natural light; almost like a brighter shade of azure, though with a little speck of violet. Perhaps cornflower blue? She'd have to look that particular shade up on one of her color charts at the dorm –

_What the hell are you even thinking, Higurashi?!_

Quickly clearing her throat, she could see his grin turning broader as she painstakingly grabbed for words. “No, it's my minor, actually..” Gesturing back around to her laptop screen, still filled to the brim with various tracks, she allowed a little grin at Kikyou's ignorant statement from before. “Major's sound engineering.”

At that, a quiet chuckle broke from his lips, and he lifted his head in interest, arms dropping down to lazily cross on the tabletop. His cognac-colored shirt ruffled slightly with the movement, similar in its simple long-sleeved cut to the gray one she had first seen him in weeks ago,and also pulled back to his elbows in the same laid-back manner. “In your face, wench”, mirth coated his words as his eyes fixed on something behind her, and when she turned around to follow his gaze, she found Kikyou in the front, sitting happily next to Inuyasha.

She snorted at his immature tone of voice, but soon turned contemplative again. It kind of stung, seeing them like that. She'd known they had most of their lectures together; both of them had started med school last year, so it really was to be expected they'd get all lovey dovey whenever they could. Still, watching them compare notes and talk about stuff equally present and important in each of their everyday lives brought a new dimension into the picture; and one to make her feel even more left-out than she already felt, at that.

With a small, self-deprecating grin, she took a breath and turned back to the man sitting behind her, watching her quietly with far too attentive eyes once again. She had a feeling he was about to ask something about the pair below them if she didn't distract him somehow, so she quickly changed the subject.

“So, are _you_ an arts major?”

The teasing lilt in her voice provoked another laugh from the wolf Youkai, and his neat, high ponytail swished with the negative shake of his head. “Sadly, no. I'm majoring english.” To be honest, she should have seen it coming – why would anybody run around with a copy of some Shakespeare drama in his down-time, otherwise? Her eyes widened nonetheless, and his grin broadened at her obviously bewildered expression. She seriously couldn't understand what someone like him would be doing in a general physics lecture, then – and, as if reading her thoughts, he just jerked a clawed thumb to his right, prompting her to finally notice his two other band members sitting a few seats over, seeming deep in conversation about something in one of their books. “Had some free time on my hands, so I thought I'd keep those idiots company for the day. Initially, at least.”

So he had seen her confrontation with Kikyou and then abandoned his mates to scoot over and talk to her? Snorting again, she threw him an amused glance, “You're such a loyal friend, it's heartwarming.”

His eyes narrowed playfully before he stuck his tongue out at her, canines flashing with the motion, and a startled laugh ripped from her as she was once more reminded of his feral heritage. Her gaze turned thoughtful as she took him in right then – everything about him oozed friskiness, a certain kind of poise that had nothing to do with hubris, but rather with a quiet confidence in his skills. And if she was honest with herself, his charisma pulled her in far more than it probably should after only talking to the wolf youkai twice.

His head fell back into his palm, arm propped up once more, and that clear, piercing stare fixed on her once again, thoughtful and calm, only to wander to the old woman finally entering the lecture hall and quieting the mass of students within seconds. Taking off her discarded earphones for good and shutting her laptop, she channeled her attention to Kaede, wanting to be up to date with what was going to be covered over the next week so she'd know how to help the students who struggled, when his hushed voice sounded quietly next to her ear.

“Not gonna take notes like queen bitch over there?” A barely-there jerk of his head let her know he was talking about Kikyou again, sitting up front and no doubt taking impeccable notes with a perfectly straight back, and Kagome actually had to force back a snort. Coughing instead and throwing apologetic glances to disturbed students around them, she could see his slow smile from where he was leaning forward, putting his head right next to hers. He obviously had a good time distracting her, and she rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“No need”, she mused and, feeling his curious eyes snap to her face instantly, threw him another knowing smile. “I'm the tutor for this course.”

  
  
  
  


  
  


“Dude, what's wrong with you today?”

Ginta's incredulous question was equally as warranted as it was annoying, and he snarled at his grey-and-black-haired friend, only receiving a smirk in return. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had flunked a three-pointer in a regular two-on-one match against Ginta and Hakkaku – he was the damn captain of their university team, for fucks sake. No one else could jump like him, run like him, _aim_ like him, and it was the sole reason he'd gotten a full athletic scholarship here even though his studies had just about _naught_ to do with sports. So why the hell couldn't he seem to get that damn ball through the fucking hoop?

Hair swished around his face as he dribbled the orange sphere distractedly.

He'd finally seen her again – _Kagome._

The girl from the party with the skills to complete a perfect soundcheck in under half a minute. The one who'd had a panic attack all by herself while hiding away in a walk-in-closet, who'd trusted him enough after only a few minutes to lay her head upon his shoulder. The one whose delicious scent – once calmed down – had still got his blood pumping even hours later. The one obviously trapped in a more than weird love triangle with that stupid hanyou from Kendo-Club and his bitchy witch of a girlfriend, and who clearly didn't have the energy nor time to spare a youkai like himself even a second thought.

He'd seen her again just half an hour ago in the lecture, and he'd totally _crowded_ her without giving it proper thought. It had just been impossible to stop talking to her; she was so damn intriguing, smart, beautiful, fun to be around, honestly, and he couldn't help himself but ask if she wanted to hang out with them afterwards, only to be turned down with the gentlest smile. Having to go talk to some professor about something, she'd stated as a reason, and he didn't quite know if she was being honest or if she just wanted to get rid of him and he obviously couldn't get a hint.

Frowning irritatedly, he quickly turned away when Ginta came at him again, skillfully ducking under his friend's outstretched arms and side-stepping Hakkaku immediately after, coming to a halt and jumping a little before throwing the ball towards the hoop once again, the flick of his hand beautiful enough to be considered excellent technique. His eyes followed the orb, tracing it's trajectory in anticipation, until –

_Thunk._

It bounced off the metal ring again, scattering back towards the right until finally coming to a stop about thirty feet away, laying in the grass surrounding the court and mocking him to no end. Growling loudly, he ran clawed fingers through his high ponytail, not quite sure if he was trying to rip out his hair in frustration or if he just wanted to get the thick locks away from his flushed skin for a moment.

“Now I'm no expert – but shouldn't the ball go _through_ the hoop, actually?”

He whipped around with demonic speed, wide eyes trained on the small figure bowing down to retrieve that orange fiend with a smile. Her shoulder bag hung from her left shoulder and bounced the slightest bit when she took a few steps closer, coming to a stop in front of him in her characteristic black sweatshirt jacket and leggings combo, and for the first time today he got a close look on the color of her t-shirt dress: a warm, dark orange, like the color of maple leaves in october after the strong reds had started to bleed out with the coming winter. Earthy and comfortable, and just everything he associated with her, even though he barely knew her yet.

Fuck. He really had to get a grip. Or get laid. Or whatever. He cursed the weather for the first time in ages; if the wind hadn't been as unsettled and fitful all day, he might have been able to get a whiff of her intoxicating scent before she was able to sneak up on him like that. He was so damn startled by her sudden appearance, he didn't even notice how long he'd been quiet until her thin eyebrows pulled together in a little frown.

“I'm sorry,” she started, looking down at the ball in her hands uneasily, pressing her palms against the rough surface from the sides. “It's just, I don't exactly want to walk back with them, and then I saw you guys playing and just took off without thinking..“ He followed her glance back over her shoulder and, sure enough, that hanyou wimp stood right where the path split into one to the dorm buildings and one trailing down to the basketball court. And boy, was he glaring daggers at Kouga from afar. Startled, he saw Kagome take a small step back again. “Sorry. I don't know why I keep bothering you of all people – ”

“Don't worry, Kagome! He was sucking ass right now, anyway, you'd do us a favor if you got him off the court for a while”, Ginta was the first to twig, coming over and wrapping the dumbfounded woman in an easy half hug before taking the ball from her hands. Shoving Kouga into her direction with a smug grin, he then skipped back to where Hakkaku was currently laughing his ass off. “The big boys are gonna play right now, just watch and learn, Kouga!”

He growled lowly, but with the way Kagome snorted amusedly next to him, he couldn't even have stayed angry if his damn life depended on it. Turning back to the path, he only raised an incredulous eyebrow at the white-haired idiot still lurking and watching. And to make matters even more hilarious, his icy little sweetheart was standing next to him, glaring at Kagome in the _exact_ same way her boyfriend was glaring at him.

Smirking and never breaking eye contact with that moron, he took a step closer and brought his right arm around her shoulders in a similar manner as Ginta had just before, pulling her towards him in a barely-there hug. His and Inuyasha's stupid war of will was quickly forgotten as he got a whiff of her heady scent, and his eyes closed almost immediately in a weak try to commit every little note to memory.

“You haven't bothered me once so far, woman”, he murmured next to her ear, and his eyes opened again with a smirk as he felt her skin grow hot from his words. Seeing that the half demon was just about to storm up to them, only held back by his pleading girl, he finally pulled away. There really was no need to make matters even worse for Kagome, and with the anger in the dark-haired wenches eyes there'd be hell to pay if this went on any longer. “Wanna go sit over there? I should probably take a break, anyway..”

He jerked his head towards the grandstand on the other side of the court in question, and she easily fell into step with him, taking a calming breath. “He saw me when I was just leaving and wouldn't go ahead without me”, she chuckled, plopping down next to him on the smooth surface of the large stone steps and pulling the strap of her bag over her head to set it down on her other side. “I felt like Kikyou was going to kill me any moment now.”

He raised an incredulous eyebrow; it was truly amazing how much of an idiot dog-boy was to be totally oblivious of his girlfriend's jealous antics. “At least he's not neglecting his friends for a girl, you've gotta hand it to him”, he retorted, prompting a startled laugh from Kagome and a grimace from himself – god, it sounded like he was defending that idiot. “Still a complete moron, though.”

She chuckled and pulled her legs underneath her indian style, watching with a small smile as Ginta and Hakkaku passed the ball back and forth, jumping around and intercepting whenever one of them tried for the hoop. “So, you're into basketball I take it?”

He snorted. “Kinda”, he smiled and leant back, enjoying the wind on his heated skin, “We're on the team – although those morons might not make it next year if they continue playing like little girls!”. His voice got louder at the end of the sentence, and the resounding ' _Hey_ !' and ' _What the hell, man?!_ ' from his friends made him laugh out loud. Bracing his elbow on his bent knee, he turned back to her. “So, you're tutoring a lecture you shouldn't even have attended until now, you're staying after class to talk to your professors about top secret stuff – you're actually a nerd, aren't ya?”

And oh boy, if her hot, crimson blush didn't just make his day. He smirked again.

“No!”, she exclaimed, turning towards him with an incredulous expression, quickly slapping his shoulder when he actually started laughing. “No, I'm not! It was just much more convenient to take that lecture a year early – and it wasn't _top secret stuff.”_ Her imitation of his voice along with the air quotes made him downright guffaw then. “It was about a book! The librarian told me he had it and – stop _laughing_!”

He really, really tried to calm down, but it was just too hilarious. “A book, huh? I don't believe ya, show me.” Actually, he was totally sure she was telling the truth; she was probably shit at lying altogether, but he was curious what kind of book she wanted to have that a _professor_ had lent from the library first. Probably not Twilight, then.

Huffing, but obviously deciding to play along, she stuck her tongue out at him and fished a worn hardcover from her shoulder bag. Accepting the tome, he threw her a last grin before looking at the title, and immediately felt his mouth drop open.

“> _Fourier Transforms And Noise Reduction Algorithms In Singing Voice Signal Processing < _ – what the _hell_?” He didn't want to laugh, really, but there was no way he could control his guffaw anymore. His shoulders shook so hard, he thought he might topple over, and her narrow-eyed pout did just about nothing to stop his fit. God, this was just so awesome. “Not a nerd, my ass”, he chuckled when she quickly plucked the book from his hands again, obviously feeling he was unworthy of holding it any longer. Another bout of giggles broke from his chest.

“A pretty-boy jock wouldn't understand the immaculate beauty of analytic functions if it knocked back a beer next to him on the couch during Super Bowl”, she stuck up her nose with a theatrical sniff that had him laughing all over again.

“Nice to know you appreciate my _insanely_ good looks”, he grinned, and she cracked a smile at his antics, her long, ebony hair falling in gentle waves over her shoulder when she shook her head exasperatedly. “And you actually found _the one_ jock who _does_ appreciate functional analysis like no other.”

Now it was her turn to laugh loudly. Her brown eyes twinkled with mirth when she turned to face him. “Did I, now?”

He put his elbows on the next step behind him and leaned back with a low confirming hum, facing the court and his two idiot friends again as his lips pulled back in a diabolic grin. Lids lowering to a sultry glance, he slowly licked one of his fangs, trying hard to seem deep in thought. “Mmh.. nothing gets me going quite like a Hilbert Space.”

Her eyes went wide, mouth dropping open, and she looked so shocked he realized she might have stopped breathing, until she suddenly broke into bell-like laughter next to him, hands flying up to cover her face as her shoulders shook. And, oh boy, that laughter. It was warm and smooth, the rich kind of voice he wanted to hear every day if at all possible, and – well, he had it bad. She was brushing her fingers across her eyes then, drying the tears threatening to spill over from her giggles, and he was struck silent when she turned to him with an easy grin.

“Wow, and you call me a nerd? Pot, meet kettle”, she mused.

He shook himself from his stupor, feeling a feral smirk spread on his lips as he took her in. “What can I say? I'm not just unbelievably handsome, but unbelievably intelligent as well. The whole nine yards – _uff!_ ” Just before he could conclude his impeccable self-assessment, the basketball hit him square in the chest, almost knocking the breath out of him and making Kagome burst into laughter next to him once again. _“Urgh,_ what the _hell?”,_ he growled, fixing a smug looking Ginta with his death-glare and rubbing the spot where the ball had hit him just then with a clawed hand. He was just about to get up and stuff the damn orange globe down his stupid friend's throat in retaliation, when something behind Hakkaku caught his eyes.

_You've gotta be kidding._

He almost face-palmed at the sight of that stupid Hanyou, sitting on a bench across the field, stiff as a damn _board_ , and fixing him with another death-glare. Kouga huffed a laugh at the scene – his bitchy girlfriend trying to get the mutt's attention as she sat next to him, pushing up against his side; but the idiot just kept glaring at Kouga instead, completely oblivious to her attempts.

“What are you staring into space for?”, an amused, smooth timbre asked from his side, and he snapped out of his smug thoughts as soon as he heard her voice again, looking at her beautiful face just in time to see her follow his incredulous gaze from before. “Ginta didn't hit your head, now, did he – ?” And Kouga could tell the _exact_ moment she had noticed what he'd been staring at, a shadow suddenly falling over her cheerful face, and her burning aura almost made him wince as her eyes narrowed in fury, making the Hanyou across the park sit up straight from panic. “I'm going to _kill_ him –”

Feeling a nervous laughter bubble from his throat, he quickly leaned over her to grab her bag and got up, prompting her to throw him a confused glance. “Hey, what are you – ?”

“We're gonna get outta here. You coming?”, he felt an honest smile tug on his lips as he offered his clawed hand to her, the unspoken _Do you trust me?_ hanging in the air between them like fog. He could clearly see her indecision; warm, brown eyes flickering between his icy-blue ones and his hand before she seemed to reach a conclusion. Barely nodding her head, she took his hand, letting him pull her to her feet as he shouldered her bag and turned to his boys.

“Ginta, Hakkaku – we're gonna get going before that mutt pops an aneurysm or something.” And if he just said that last part to see the Hanyou jump to his feet with a growl from the corner of his eye, no one had to know, right? “Take my stuff back to the frat for me?”

“Sure thing, boss”, Hakakku grinned, throwing an amused glance at the agitated mutt, arguing with his equally agitated girlfriend as she tried to hold him back from storming over. “See you later. Bye, sis!”, he picked up the forgotten basketball and threw it towards the hoop once again, waving quickly along with Ginta before they got into their one-on-one match again.

Grinning, Kouga turned back to Kagome. “So, we could just walk away, or...”, spreading his arms in a non-verbal invitation, a smirk pulled on his lips, “May I? Pretty sure I could outrun lover-boy over there.” The jerk of his head towards her annoying best friend paired with a dry lift of his brow caused her to chuckle.

She quirked a dark eyebrow with a grin. “Oh, absolutely! I just _love_ piggyback-rides”, she rolled her chocolate eyes and stepped closer, obviously expecting him to turn around, and he couldn't help but snort, dumbfounded.

“Who the hell was talking about some lame piggyback-ride?”, tugging her shoulder bag to sit comfortably on his lower back, he swooped down before she could say another word, scooping her up princess-style and grinning broadly at her startled yelp. He could hear yelling in the background ( _“Fucking – Akiyama! Put her down, you mangy wolf!”_ ) – that stupid mutt obviously wasn't enjoying the situation nearly as much as himself – and his eyes closed when her incredible scent hit his keen nose as he pulled her close, arms beneath her upper back and knees tightening as he brought her closer to his chest.

Opening his eyes, he glanced down to find Kagome's – wide and dazed at his unexpected move – and a slow grin pulled at his lips.

“Alright then, let's see if he can keep up.”

And with an inhuman jump, they were off, leaving a whirl of leaves and Kagome's gleeful laughter in their wake.


	3. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She reeled back, not really believing what she was hearing and how close she was to actually hitting him at this point. “Are you kidding me? You wouldn't notice heartbroken me if she jumped out of your closet naked!”
> 
> “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I – “

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... so, another messy chapter. i've been so impatient to publish this that it turned out hurried and with far too much direct conversation and not enough narrative; but i hope you can forgive me. anyway, i'd be really happy about some ideas, thoughts, whatever :) 
> 
> have a nice read, guys!

The quiet ' _ ping _ ' of her phone demanded her attention, making her hold up her hand in apology as she moved to take the device from its face-down position on the table between them. To be honest, she had a good guess on who'd been texting her even before taking a look at the name – and not only because all of her close friends were sitting in the tiny coffee shop along with her at the moment.

_ (Kouga:) ..going to the lecture today? _

She rolled her eyes, a tiny grin pulling on her lips as she unlocked the phone to quickly text back.  _ 'Yeah, gotta see what Kaede's doing today before tutoring later this week'.  _ And sent. That man was really a handful – for weeks he'd attended at least one of the old woman's lectures a week with Ginta and Hakkaku – and subsequently, with  _ her _ – and she still didn't have a clue why he did it. He was an English major – why would he sit through a general physics lecture if it wasn't even required for him? Huffing exasperatedly, she put her phone back down on the tabletop and looked up, finally noticing the silence that had set in due to the disruption.

Clearing her throat and picking up her long-since turned cold cup of coffee, she briefly met her friends' stares before fixing the counter a few feet over with a nervous gaze as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “... You were saying..?”

White eyebrows pulled together in an annoyed frown when she turned back to Inuyasha, who'd been in the middle of ranting about one of his courses or something. “I was  _ saying  _ that you seem awfully distracted as of late – who was that?” His amber eyes burned into her, and she almost winced at his intensity, sitting across from her at the small table and crossing his arms on the wooden surface, as if his displeased facial expression wasn't enough already to speak about his dissatisfaction with her absent-mindedness. And still, he somehow managed to look annoyingly handsome in his dark red sweater, hair pulled back in a lazy low bun that just made her want to pull out the scrunchie and push her fingers through the thick locks. God, she really was pathetic, huh?

Turning to Sango, who was sitting next to her in the booth and who had no doubt read both the message and the contact info over her shoulder, she was only met with a sly grin and a helpless shrug as the brunette took a sip of her own coffee as if to say 'You deal with him, girl'.  _ Incredibly _ helpful.

Kagome huffed, setting the mug down and clearing her throat again, making even Miroku snicker now from his position across from Sango.

“Just a friend asking about a lecture.”

She really tried to make it sound nonchalant, and judging from the way Inuyasha's brows shot up in surprise and the stifled chuckles of the other two, it was working unbelievably well.

“A  _ friend _ ? What  _ friend _ ?”, the Hanyou's disbelieving voice made her eyes narrow as all of her apprehension vanished and made place for bubbling anger. Amber orbs widened in something akin to fear as he pushed up from the table and leaned back in his seat in an attempt to bring more distance between them.

“Yes, Inuyasha – a  _ friend. _ It's astonishing, I know, but even someone like  _ me _ is able to make friends now and then.”

Miroku guffawed at that, but a quick, angry glance made him pull up his hands in a defensive gesture, biting back his laughter to a strangled cough as Inuyasha seemed to get over his brief bout of fear, laying a fisted hand on the table again and leaning closer in annoyance.

“Stop putting words in my mouth, wench. I was just surprised that this is the first time I hear about this friend of yours, that's all.”

“Well”,  _ now  _ Sango felt the need to contribute to the discussion it seemed, and the sly smile on the brunette woman's face already caused nervous sweat to gather on Kagome's neck, “you  _ have  _ heard of him already, to be fair.”

“Sango!” Her reprimand was met with another innocent shrug, but the damage was already done. She could almost see the cog wheels turning in the white-haired man's head until his eyes suddenly widened.

“You've gotta be kidding –  _ him _ ?!”

Kagome sighed, brushing a hand through her bangs and suddenly feeling like the cat who ate the canary. “Yeah, well, we've got some courses together – ”, one, admittedly, and one he didn't even have to take, at that, but she didn't have to tell them that, “ – and he's actually quite – “

Another 'ping' made all of them stare at her phone for a second, startled, and a quick glance at Inuyasha's face already told her all she had to know.

It was only due to years of dealing with her best friend's moronic tendencies and the fact that it was lying much closer to her than to him that she was able to snatch the device from the table before his clawed hand was able to grasp it, and she immediately pulled it behind her back, slapping his outstretched arm with a furious glare. “Inuyasha!”

“What are you trying to hide?!”, he snarled, almost crawling over the table in another attempt to take the phone from her, and forcing Miroku to lay a calming hand on his shoulder as he tried to push the Hanyou back into his seat with an exasperated sigh. But it was never that easy with their white-haired friend, and he just shook off the grip with an angry growl, turning back to Kagome. “Are you  _ dating _ him?!”

“No!”, she almost shouted, drawing even more attention from the other customers, and she quickly threw an apologetic wave to the unamused looking barista at the counter. Clearing her throat, she forced herself back to using her indoor-voice. “No, I'm not! Will you stop acting like my mom already? You've been nothing but a moron since your frat party back in September!”

“Alright, guys”, Miroku tried to intercept, throwing Sango a nervous gaze that went totally unnoticed by the two squabblers, “how about we all take a deep – “

“Oh,  _ I've _ been acting like a moron?! Why the hell would you even hide in a fucking closet with fucking wolf cub when you're actually supposed to do our soundcheck?!”

“I wasn't hiding! And the soundcheck was done already, what the hell is your problem, Inuyasha?!”

“Fucking  _ Akiyama _ is my problem, woman!”, he snapped back, baring his fangs as his fist hit the table, “He's toying with you, and you don't even notice!”

“Guys, let's calm down, okay?”, it was Sango this time, brushing a hand along Kagome's arm in a soothing gesture, but she was far too riled-up to notice, shaking her off and leaning closer to the idiot of a Hanyou in front of her, baring her teeth right back at him.

“He's just being  _ nice _ , Inuyasha! It's quite the neat concept, you should try it sometime!”

“Guys – ”

“He just wants to get into your fucking pants!”, they were probably going to be thrown out soon at this rate, but his voice kept rising, “It's just what those mangy wolves do all the damn time, and you even fucking let him carry you around like a moron!”

“Guys, calm down – “

“ _ You _ dare call  _ me _ a moron?! I'm not the one still hung up on something that happened weeks ago!”

“It was only last week! And, yes, you're a damn moron! He's going to use you like he does everybody else, and then you're going to be heartbroken for ages and I'll have to deal with it!”

She reeled back, not really believing what she was hearing and how close she was to actually hitting him at this point. “Are you kidding me? You wouldn't notice heartbroken me if she jumped out of your closet naked!”

“What the hell is  _ that _ supposed to mean? I – “

A ringtone disrupted their shouting match all of a sudden, but this time, it wasn't hers. Leaning back in her seat with a huff, she watched Inuyasha jerk his gaze from hers with a glare for a brief moment, before taking a deep breath and grabbing his phone from his back pocket. Sango and Miroku were staring at each other, both rigid as they briefly glanced at her, but she couldn't hold their gaze and turned back towards the counter as Inuyasha took the call.

“Hey, babe”, he cleared his throat awkwardly. “No, everything's alright. … Yeah. …. Sure. … Cool, I'll be there in ten... love you, too.”

Kagome grit her teeth, suddenly feeling much closer to tears than her anger from before, and she was quietly thankful when Sango slipped her hand into hers beneath the table, gripping it like a vice. She heard Inuyasha exhale tiredly as soon as the call had ended, but she couldn't meet his gaze as he got up and shrugged on his jacket.

“I gotta go”, he said curtly, not offering any other explanation, but a quick glance at the clock in the corner told Kagome that he was probably going to walk Kikyou to their physics lecture. She could feel his amber eyes on her, but she just fixed the tabletop as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “This isn't over, Kagome. We'll talk later. Miroku, Sango.” He nodded at their friends and left without another word, leaving the rest of them to relax as the tension started to dissolve.

Sango cleared her throat, awkwardly playing around with her empty cup. “That was pretty straight-forward, Kagome. I didn't expect you to call him out on that..”

Huffing a humorless laugh, Kagome brought the rest of her drink to her mouth and emptied the cup in a quick gulp. “Yeah, well, I didn't mean to, to be honest.” She moved the mug back to the table. “It just kinda slipped out.”

“You have to tell him, Kags.” She glanced at Miroku, noticing his worried look and biting her lip uneasily. “You had a panic attack – who knows what would've happened if Kouga hadn't found you? It feels like you're starting to break under the pressure of it all. You have to put some distance between the both of you..”

Sighing deeply, she leant back and met his eyes with a wry smile, regretting that she even told Sango and Miroku about it. “I can't. It's not his fault his best friend stupidly fell in love with him, is it? I can't just abandon him. And besides, it's been a month and nothing of the sort has happened again – ”

“ – as of yet”, Sango interjected gently and drew her in for a half-hug. “We worry about you, a  _ lot _ ..”

“And _ he's _ worried as well”, Miroku added, leaning onto the table and laying his chin on his intertwined fingers. “He doesn't understand what's up, and having a friend keep secrets all the time actually hurts a lot as well, you know?” Kagome could only slump against the back of her seat weakly at that last part, eyes dropping to the tabletop in regret. She hadn't even considered how  _ he _ might feel about that. Slender fingers wrapped around her own hand, the gesture comforting and strong, just like Sango herself, before the warmth was gone again.

“We have to get going, Kohaku is waiting already – and you've got that lecture as well, haven't you?”, Sango explained, wrapping her delicate neck in a deep green scarf while Miroku got up as well. “But please,  _ please _ think about it, okay?”

And after a halfhearted promise to do just that and two hugs that were far too tight to leave her with bad feelings, she was sitting at the small table at the window alone again. And it was then that she remembered her phone. Sighing and grabbing it from its abandonned spot on the table, she was not surprised in the least to see two more notifications lighting up her screen.

_ (Kouga:) ah. so in short: nerding like a nerd does ;) already there with the idiot duo (they're discussing whether electrons are fermions or bosons – kill me now). _

_ (Kouga:) anyway, saved ya a spot in the back row ~ _

She brought her hand up, fingers brushing against her lips in a vague try to hide her grin at his last message. He really was nice; in the time they had known each other he had been nothing but helpful and respectful, not at all like the things Inuyasha went on and on accusing him for. Even that time two weeks ago, when he'd just picked her up and run from the angry Hanyou, he had gripped her with all the care in the world, and she had yet to feel uncomfortable in his presence. And, admittedly, it had been quite fun to hide on the roof of the chemistry building, looking down at the people five stories below and watching the angered white-haired boy run by time and time again, totally frustrated and without being able to smell a trace of them due to all the chemical vapors collected and filtered by fume hoods in the labs at the basement and emitted all around the building.

A heavy feeling spread in her chest at that thought, and she quickly packed up her stuff, throwing the barista another apologetic wave before leaving the shop to head to the lecture at last.

She really had to talk to Inuyasha, and she knew it. The way she had treated him over the last weeks had been half-hearted at best, and downright mean at worst, and hiding from him had only been the tip of the iceberg. She hadn't told him anything that went on in her life recently, and while she felt it was well-deserved on his part due to the way he had acted at the party and afterwards, she also had to be honest with herself. And if she  _ was _ honest with herself, she had to admit that all of his behaviour mostly served as a nice excuse to avoid him without having to come clean once and for all.

She was a coward, and sooner or later, she would have to face the consequences of her actions.

Sighing under her breath, she pushed the strap of her backpack further up her shoulder as she entered the physics building, heading straight to Kaede's already mostly filled lecture hall. Stopping briefly at the entrance and skimming the crowd, she caught a glimpse of the white-haired hanyou and his beautiful girlfriend sitting at the front, of course not noticing her standing around and watching like an idiot as they seemed to compare their course notes in hushed voices. The heavy feeling seemed to become even worse, and she quickly averted her gaze, glancing towards the back of the hall instead and immediately catching a knowing ice-blue stare that sent a shiver down her spine, even though the temperature increased by the minute due to all the people gathering inside.

She forced a small smile and made her way over to the three wolf youkai sitting in the last row, stopping next to a grinning Kouga. He turned to her as she shrugged out of her thick black coat and took a seat next to him; Ginta and Hakkaku had yet to acknowledge her arrival, still totally immersed in a discussion on elementary particles or something – the sharp edges of handsome youkai's canines next to her a bit sidetracked..

“Hey, beautiful. You look tired – everything alright?”

His long, dark ponytail swished lazily as he turned to sit sideways on his seat, completely turned towards her as his back faced his two friends indifferently. A rust red, long-sleeved shirt clung to his lithe frame this time, the earthy color making the tan skin of his forearms glow in a way that seemed inhuman with the way he had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows once more –  _ well, that's a wolf youkai for you _ .. They didn't even seem to lose their sun-kissed complexion in the midst of autumn. It was truly annoying how he managed to just look so damn handsome all the time without even trying.

She huffed a quiet laugh and set her notebook and pen on the table in front of them for taking notes on stuff to go over with the students later.

“Wow, telling a girl she looks tired – way to make me feel better, Kouga”, she teased with a grin, and he just stuck out his tongue in retaliation. “I'm fine, don't worry. Just had a long day.” His bright eyes seemed to pierce her, and she quickly averted her gaze to look down at the front of the lecture hall, unable to hold his stare.

He let out a low hum, eyes narrowing a fraction in thought, and she was almost sure he'd confront her with another of his spot-on assumptions about Inuyasha, but he only nodded lightly and leaned forward on his little desk, pushing his head into his hand as he followed her gaze to the front instead, where Kaede had already taken her spot and started the lecture. She hadn't even noticed..

“You know, you're the first to complain about my charming ways'', he murmured quietly with a sly grin, leaning his head to the side to throw her an amused look. “It's always ' _ Kouga, you jerk! You're only thinking of basketball!' _ or  _ 'Kouga, you fiend! You're always favoring your dumb pack!' _ “ She had to snort at his bad imitation of a girly voice at that and his grin grew even bigger. A few students around them were shooting them angry looks already, but all those glares went ignored. “But complaints about my gentlemanly observations? Nah, that's a new one. You're killin' me, 'Gome.”

Another bout of laughter suddenly got stuck in her throat at his abbreviation of her name, and her head snapped to the side to look at him with wide eyes. His icy-blue orbs glittered with amusement at her startled look, a dark eyebrow raising in challenge.

She cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, hate to break it to you, pretty-boy, but not every woman falls for your supposed charms'', she quipped, flicking a loose strand of her hair back towards her low bun in a girly move that elicited a low chuckle from the youkai.

“Aw, c'mon – pretty  _ boy? _ I'm easily 25 times your age, it's pretty  _ man _ , at least. But I'm glad you appreciate my transcendental beauty.”

His wink at that last statement went ignored as her mouth dropped open in shock.

“You're  _ what?!” _

And, okay, in retrospect, it might not have been her smartest move to just blurt it out like that, turning to face him completely now as her mind tried to process this new information but failed. But, who could really blame her for turning to face him and looking at him as if he'd grown another head when this little piece of information about his age was just about as bad? In short, she wasn't sorry about all but shouting at him in disbelief, but she just might be a little sorry about shouting at him in disbelief in a filled lecture hall, making her words echo loudly from the high walls and instantly drawing all attention to herself and the stunned wolf youkai next to her.

Her eyes widened in shock and she sat up totally straight, trying to hide from all the stares of their fellow students behind her black sweatshirt-jacket when the sudden silence following her outburst seemed to echo even louder than her shocked words from before. Kaede was looking at her with a dry expression that seemed to ask 'what the hell is your problem?', and she suddenly couldn't  _ breathe _ , panic rising in her throat as she tried to swallow the forming lump there but failed. Her breathing was getting pretty harsh too, and –

No. Oh no. She knew that feeling, and the last time she'd felt it had been at some stupid walk-in-closet at Inuyasha and Miroku's fraternity –

“Breathe, 'Gome. Everything's alright, just breathe.” His deep, barely audible voice reached her ears then, and her head snapped to Kouga, taking him in with frightened, big eyes. He was still leaning on the table, head in his hand as if he couldn't care less that he was the focus of attention of about 200 people. But the most surprising thing by far was his other hand disappearing beneath the table sneakily and gripping her hand reassuringly, and she suddenly was able to take a shaky breath again. Raising his voice, he quickly addressed an unimpressed Kaede with an easy grin. “Sorry, teach. I was just telling her something regarding what you just went over and she was quite shocked. Please continue.”

Kaede regarded the both of them with thoughtful eyes before nodding briefly and turning back towards her desk, and Kagome exhaled shakily, squeezing the clawed hand holding hers tightly as her anxiety began to drop again –

“I'm sorry?”, that melodic voice from the front instantly managed to grab everyone's attention again, and she felt Kouga stiffen at the same time as herself when he seemed to recognize the cold soprano as well. He briefly met her eyes, thumb brushing the back of her hand reassuringly before turning to face Kikyou, who was sitting straight as always, hand raised in question. Kagome could only stare at the other woman, hoping that for once, she'd leave her childish grudge against her out of the picture. 

Gaze flickering to the side, the raven-haired girl became acutely aware of Inuyasha's wide-eyed stare from his position right next to his girlfriend, as he obviously took note of her presence for the first time since the beginning of the term. Their eyes met, and she could see a range of emotions crossing his face in the span of two seconds; first shock, immediately followed by disbelief, and then betrayal and hurt making her chest squeeze together painfully. Her mouth fell open, as if she could shout a number of excuses at him across all of those strangers sitting between them, but it snapped shut again wordlessly as his gaze changed one more time.

Anger. He was furious.

There was going to be hell to pay.

Kaede turned to Kikyou, nodding her head to prompt her to speak, and drawing their attention back to the younger woman. “Yes?”

Dark brown, calculating eyes set on Kagome briefly before the other girl turned to the front again, lowering her hand now that she had the floor, and Kagome felt dread pool in her chest again, trying to ignore the amber-eyed gaze piercing her from next to Kikyou. “I was just thinking.. If it was course related, everyone might benefit from hearing it..”

The 'I think he should repeat what he was just saying out loud for the rest of us' went unsaid, but rang just as loud through the hall as Kaede nodded with a sigh and turned to the two of them in the back row once again, raising a thin brow. Kagome swallowed, feeling her unease grow once again until the low, growled 'What a fucking bitch' Kouga mumbled under his breath almost startled a laugh out of her. No truer words had ever been spoken, but that didn't really help their situation now, did it?

Frantically, Kagome turned to the blackboard, trying to quickly think of something to say, but she hadn't even paid attention to a thing Kaede had said so far. The symbols and lines gracing the dark green background in white chalk almost seemed to mock her. Operators? Perhaps something about quantum mechanics, then? Harmonic oscillators? Landau levels? Kagome bit her lip, feeling the silence drag her down while another second went by. God, she had to say something, Kouga probably hadn't even thrown a single look at the board in all the lectures so far, and she could see Kikyou turn back to her with a self-satisfied grin.

_ Think, Higurashi, say something. Literally  _ anything _ – _

“You've got no faith in me, woman”, Kouga murmured softly at her, and she quickly glanced at him in confusion, but he just threw her a wink and turned to Kikyou with a lazy grin, head still propped up on a clawed hand as he raised his voice to be heard by everybody once again. “Oh, but of course! I was just saying that I wasn't not sure why they use all that Hilbert space shtick for quantum mechanics in the first place. I mean, you wanna have a norm for defining some probability and all that, but a Banach space would've been enough for all that, right?”

Kagome could see Kikyou's eyes widen in disbelief and then narrow dangerously as she glared at the youkai, but she was too stunned by the man sitting next to her without a care to really appreciate the view. And Kouga didn't seem the least bit deterred as his grin only widened.

“And then she was like  _ 'You're what?!' _ \- and her exasperation was  _ totally _ valid! I mean, you're also gonna talk about orthogonal states in quantum mechanics, so of course you'd prefer a Hilbert space where your norm is induced by the scalar product from the start! Well, I'm lucky to have such a smart woman sitting next to me – now I get it.”

And, oh boy, the only possible description for how Kagome and the rest of the room were looking at him then was downright  _ gaping _ – Kagome's mouth had dropped open in shock as she turned to him once more, barely holding back another exclamation like the first that had lead them into this stupid situation altogether, and she was just – Stunned? Floored? Impressed to no end? She didn't know, but that lazy grin as he threw her another look from the corner of his eye seemed to get broader in satisfaction when he saw her reaction.

Kagome had to swallow.

He was really attractive like that; hair pulled back, wide shirt stretching over his muscles in all the right places, canines glinting in the artificial light and eyes burning like a flame so hot it flickered in the brightest shades of blue and – god, he was annoyingly beautiful and apparently also a  _ hell _ of a lot smart –

A strange fluttery feeling spread in her stomach, and she actively ignored it and its implications..

The silence was suddenly broken by Kaede's low chuckle, and Kagome quickly turned her attention back to the front, barely catching Kikyou's annoyed expression before the other girl turned around again with a huff. Feeling another set of eyes on her, she turned to the man sitting next to the annoying beauty and was immediately met with a raging mad glare of amber eyes, before the Hanyou turned around as well, leaving her a little breathless. _ Shit. _

“What's dog breath's problem this time?”, Kouga murmured next to her, narrow eyes fixing the white-haired Hanyou after witnessing the short interaction between them.

“Guess I forgot to tell him I'd be in this lecture as well.. “

“You didn't tell him you're Kaede's TA?”

“.. No.”

She glanced at the man sitting next to her and saw him open his mouth as if to say something, when Kaede's voice forced his attention back to her.

“That's a valid point you're making. I'm going to go into detail on that sometime next week I reckon. Kouga – if you would be so nice as to stay after class? You as well, Kagome.”

Both of them managed to nod curtly at that, and just like that, all attention fell away from them. She heaved a heavy breath, closing her eyes briefly. A quick tightening of clawed fingers around hers before letting go reminded her that he'd been holding her hand all the time, and a hot blush colored her cheeks immediately. Swallowing, she tried to ignore his knowing smirk and chose to do what she did best – divert and deflect. “How does she even know your name?”

“Told ya, I'm a lot older than I look. Not the first time I'm studying at this university, either.”

She almost face-palmed then. In all the commotion she'd honestly forgotten what they had even been talking about in the first place, but his off-handed remark brought it back with stunning clarity. “How old  _ are _ you?”

“Old enough not to kiss and tell”, he grinned. “Gotta stay mysterious, you know?”

She only rolled her eyes, finally turning back to the front to start paying attention to Kaede, totally ignoring his deep chuckle and the shiver it was sending down her spine.

She was in for a long term from the looks of it.  
  
  
  


*****

  
  


“So, I'm assuming you two had fun?”, Kaede cuckled when all of her students had left the hall, leaving her with Kagome and Kouga, both sitting in front of her on two neighboring seats of the frontrow. Kagome was blushing again, stammering apologies while Kouga seemed to enjoy the situation far too much, his posture relaxed as always as he was regarding her with a small smile. “It's been quite some time since I've seen you, Kouga.”

“Nah, I've been attending your lecture for the last month”, he grinned. “Anyway, what did you want to talk about?” Kagome stared at him in shock – she was going to reprimand them, what else? How could he just talk to her so casually?

“Straight to the chase, just like back then”, the old woman laughed and weaved her fingers together behind her back, hunching a little as she went back to her desk to shuffle some papers around. “They added general physics to quite a lot of curricula, now there's a lot more students than I'm used to. I've been looking for someone to assist Kagome in her tutoring role, and I think I've found that someone. Are you interested?”

Kagome blanched, looking between the both of them completely stunned.

“Sure, why not”, the youkai replied good-naturedly. “You got some course notes for me? Been some time since my last math and physics lecture, wouldn't even know what to go over.”

“Of course”, Kaede was already handing him a folder similar to the one Kagome had been handed a few weeks ago, and she could only gape at the transaction taking place. “Your first session is going to be this Friday. I know it is rather short notice, so you could just join on next week's – ”

“Nah, it's fine. Gonna be with Kagome anyway, right?”

“Yes, though I'd like you to split the students into two smaller groups and offer two tutoring sessions a week. Whether you want to do them together or split the times between the two of you is up to you.”

“Alright, we better get going and talk this over a bit, then”, he smiled, throwing Kaede a mocking salute that made her laugh with a shake of her head as he began to make his way towards the door, turning back to Kagome with a questioning look when she was still sitting there unmoving. “You coming?”

“... Sure...”, she murmured, throwing Kaede a half-hearted wave which the older woman returned with a kind smile before following Kouga outside. He was already leaning against the wall, waiting. “So, you know Kaede?”

He hummed noncommittally before falling into step with her as she made her way to the huge marble stairs leading down to the ground floor. “Yeah. I took one of her lectures a few decades back; she'd been quite young back then, only getting started as a professor here. Was quite interesting, actually.” A slow grin spread on his face as he turned to look at her, “Still, literature is more my thing now, to be honest.”

“Shocking, coming from a guy who's running around parties with a Shakespeare copy”, she teased, a small grin pulling at the corner of her lips as they descended, her black Doc Martens offering a rather funny contrast to the worn-down Converse he always seemed to wear, no matter the weather. “I'm surprised you're not majoring anything related to music, though..”

He huffed a quiet laugh at that. “To be honest, I'm still a little old-fashioned when it comes to music. It took  _ ages _ to get into all that electric guitar jam. Ginta was always teasing how I'm – ”

Kouga broke off abruptly, stopping just at the bottom of the stairs and bringing her to a halt with his unexpected stop. She could see his icy blue eyes narrow as his lips pulled back in a low growl, and was just about to ask him what was wrong, when his deep voice beat her to it – though it wasn't directed at her this time around.

“What, gonna throw another tantrum, dog breath?”

Kagome's eyes widened at the insult, head snapping around and following Kouga's line of view towards the huge entrance to the building they had been walking towards. And she didn't even know why she was surprised to see her best friend leaning next to it, but the mix of shock and guilt hitting her almost bowled her over.

Inuyasha's arms were crossed in front of his chest, amber gaze stormy as he watched them approach without even dignifying Kouga's jibe with a response for once. His eyes were locked solely on her, and she had the sudden epiphany that she might just have compromised their relationship to a point of no return with her actions over the last weeks when she got a good look at his face. She could feel the blood drain from her cheeks as dread spread through her chest like poison, opening her mouth to say something – anything – when the white-haired man suddenly pushed off the wall and turned towards the exit, jerking his head in a way that made it clear he wanted her to follow him –  _ alone _ – and beat her to it with a voice so cold and calm she almost didn't recognize the Hanyou anymore.

“We need to talk.”

**Author's Note:**

> So the songs mentioned are exclusively by The Calling; 'Thank You', and 'One By One' (and actually this whole fic is kind of built around one of their older albums so far, title as well as chapter titles.. god, I'm a nerd...)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading <3


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